True Horror
by ShadoutCarver
Summary: Harry and Bob go to a horror convention TV verse with a few teaspoons of bookverse Some some things might resemble spoilers for Fool Moon and Proven Guilty. Dedicated to everyone who survived Farpoint ’98.


Title: True Horror  
Author: ShadoutCarver  
Rating: Some iffy language  
Book or TV verse: TV verse with a few teaspoons of bookverse  
Disclaimer: Dresden Files belongs to Jim Butcher and Scifi Channel  
Summary: Harry and Bob go to a Horror convention  
Warning: Some things that might resemble spoilers for Fool Moon and Proven Guilty

Dedicated to everyone who survived Farpoint '98. Including the cheerleaders  
(And apologies to Robert O'Reilly)

When all was said and done,  
it was a **hell** of a lot of fun!

-------------

I got the call from John, the head security at the horror convention on Friday evening. He sounded desperate.

"Mr. Dresden, please, you have to come. It's horrible, I have been calling in everyone I can trust to help with security. You could be a great help, please, it's a nightmare here." He pleaded. He did sound rather spooked.

"What can possibly go wrong at a horror conventi… oh right, last year… never mind" I said. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"We're at a different hotel this year," he told me "the old hotel said we're an undesirable element." He told me where the new hotel was.

"Well you can't blame them, really." I answered him. He agreed.

"Can you bring a friend? Bring as many as you can. We'll need them. They won't have to pay for admission."

I hung up wondering what kind of deadly monsters were haunting the horror convention THIS year.

I tried to dress in a more wizardly fashion, putting on the ragged old black duster that made me look a bit like a fugitive from the set of El Dorado. I also grabbed my formal staff and entered the lab.

"Hey, Bob, you're going to love this!" I found Bob working on a suspicious looking formula. He frowned at me for breaking his concentration.

"What is it, Dresden, I'm busy."

"I just got a call from John at the horror convention; he wants us to help out with security."

Bob wiped his formula, grinning. "Why didn't you say so? Let's go!" and my ghost disappeared into his skull.

Bob likes field trips.

---

When we arrived at the hotel John had named I was sure we had made a mistake. The hotel was surrounded by buses and pre-teen girls with a few adult escorts. I entered the hotel and asked about the horror convention.

"South tower" a harried bellman said as he pointed.

I found John in the south tower. He looked like he was about to cry.

"Cheerleaders" he told me. "Six thousand pre-teen cheerleaders are in this hotel. There's a competition in town. "

I suppressed the urge to laugh.

"Cheerleaders?" I asked. "Cheerleaders are horrific?"

John glared at me.

"Wait." He growled.

"Where's your friend?" he asked.

"He'll be along." I replied, unconsciously griping Bob's skull tighter. Oh he was going to LOVE this. Maybe I should call in Billy and the Alphas. A pack of friendly werewolves would certainly liven things up. Oh, never mind, there they were.

"Billy!" I greeted him.

He and the pack came wandering over, smiling as one, their heads tracking a group of girls that had barged through them, bumping into Georgia who growled softly at them.

"No, guys, you can't, not here."

Billy sighed. "We know that, man, but it's so tempting!"

Well, I couldn't argue with that.

I found an abandoned alcove under the escalator to let Bob out of his skull. He materialized grinning.

"Cheerleaders?"

"Yup. A true horror."

He laughed. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

---

We made our way through gaggles of giggling girls to the registration desk. They were so engrossed in their own world none of them ever noticed they were walking through Bob.

WE obtainied our badges, mine read "Convention Wizard". Bob had charmed one of the volunteers into writing something on his badge. I picked it up and read it while the young woman flirted with Bob.

"Ghost of Honor?" I asked him, arching an eyebrow.

He grinned, and a spectral duplicate of the badge appeared on his jacket lapel.

I rolled my eyes.

"Lets go, John wants us at the hallway outside the ballroom.

We arrived at chaos. The six foot seven klingon running from 2 cheerleaders had given us fair warning.

There were fans dressed in all manner of black, some in costumes. The vampires costumes made me uneasy, but I managed not to reduce any of them to flames with my staff.

"Is that supposed to be scary? Cause it ain't, mister."

I turned and saw a cheerleader addressing one of the costumed vampires. He grinned at her. The look was so feral I did a double take. Oh crap that wasn't a costume, he was a red court vampire. I sidled over and whispered in his ear.

"Must I call in the wardens? Or Bianca? Are you really going to break the treaty for one child?" Not that I don't sympathize. I almost muttered.

"Wizard, A horror convention is only recreation. I wouldn't have taken much. Must you spoil even this?"

"I think the cheerleaders are already doing a fine job of that."

He laughed.

"I find them highly entertaining." He said.

"Yeah, well, you're evil."

He smirked.

---

John was at the other end of the hallway near the bar. We waded our way over and I introduced him to Bob.

"John?" Bob asked. "What are all these klingons doing here?" he pointed to a stream of klingons flowing from the bar into a banquet hall.

"It's a Klingon Banquet. One of our guest actors had a recurring role as a klingon in one of the star treks" John explained. "He starred in all four Beasties movies"

The actor himself emerged from the bar last, accompanied by two klingon women draped over his arms. He looked at us and started softly singing "There's no business like show business"

Several cheerleaders giggled behind us. The actor winked at them. John sighed. Bob smirked.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two red court vampires trying to covertly escort a third and very inebriated vampire from the bar towards the outer doors. I groaned and headed into the bar to find the anemic drunk. I hoped the person was still alive.

This was going to be a very long weekend.


End file.
